THE WRESTLING REPORT

WWE Struggles to find any rhythm at all

Cory De La Guardia
Jun 5, 2019, 6:23 am
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Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports and Wrestling. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio shows www.nerdthugradio.com!

Raw yet again felt off balance with it kicking off with another chapter in the Roman Reigns rivalry with Shance McMahon with their match set to be in Saudi Arabia this coming weekend. It was immediately followed by The Miz coming out and helping Seth Rollins cut dual promos against both Brock Lesnar and Baron Corbin, but wait? Didn't The Miz have a massive rivalry with Shane? He didn't want to run out and help Roman against Shane? This is confusing. Raw overall has been confusing, everything from the Lucha House Party three on one match against Lars Sullivan to Rey Mysterio giving the US title directly back to Samoa Joe, I didn't know that was allowed. It feels like everything is just going crazy right now like whoever is spinning the plates is losing focus is kind of how it feels. With the Saudi Arabia event building up to literally this Friday they finally decided to put Triple H into the ring with Randy Orton and let the two of them say anything at all publicly and then also had The Undertaker issue vague threats to Goldberg who wasn't even on Raw. The beating on Seth Rollins from Brock Lesnar was brutal but honestly it wasn't all that interesting, Rollin's title match is against Baron Corbin but everyone knows Lesnar is lurking somewhere back stage, which makes the match less important it feels like.

Smackdown turned up the confusion a little bit more by beginning to push the next pay per view event which is apparently only two weeks away? What? We haven't even had this event yet and already Smackdown is talking about something new that's two weeks away? Shance McMahon at one point calls out Roman Reigns while he's in the ring with the Revival and for some reason Roman comes out by himself and takes yet another beating, why on earth would he even agree to do that? Finn Balor made his first appearance in about two weeks and he ran into the ring and took a very fast beating from Andrade, why would they even do that? Perhaps one of the most annoying parts of Smackdown was Lars Sullivan speaking for the first time and when asked why he's been mugging people for two weeks he asks if someone would ask the Nightingale why it sang it's sweet song. What? Who is he supposed to be, wrestling's Hannibal Lector? Perhaps the biggest highlight was Alexa Bliss winning a triple threat match to be the Number 1 contender for the Smackdown Women's Title.

Overall both Smackdown and Raw are feeling more and more like a mess and to me the biggest question I have at this point, is how long are matches like Triple H and Randy Orton or Undertaker and Goldberg going to be able to keep people's attention?

Feel free to check out my digital short story The Wilson House or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help fight cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.

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Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio shows www.nerdthugradio.com!

So there's a ton that happened this week and not all of it on just Raw and Smackdown. Let's get to the big announcement first, NXT will be leaving the WWE Network and coming to USA Network and directly competing against AEW on Wednesday nights. Also, NXT will begin touring the country like the Red and Blue brands to give more exposure to these lesser wrestlers and help grow the brand overall. I've always said one of the hurdles an NXT call up has to deal with when they come up is that they aren't nationally known, so sure they pop in Florida where NXT films every month, but how do they play when they're seen for the first time in the Midwest? That's not going to be a problem anymore which will make some of these guys journeys much easier. The choice to compete with AEW I think is their mistake. I think if people have to choose between two things they don't know, they are more likely to give the complete unknown the try rather than the third WWE show, I might be wrong but that's just how I feel.

The other thing I wanted to mention was WWE did a house show here in Houston on Saturday and this is the perfect opportunity to talk about how crazy the WWE schedule is. This is an untelevised show, with guys like Randy Orton, Kevin Owens and Charlotte Flair among other big name stars doing matches, they were flying in from Orlando, doing this show and going right back on the road for Raw on Monday night. This is where the road takes its toll on WWE superstars. When it was reported that Dean Ambrose did 200 matches in one year and you start adding it up, even if he was on every Raw and Smackdown that's only 104 shows. The number of house shows these guys do is insane and it's part of how they make their business work but still, the travel and the wear and tear is incredible.

This week on the shows they began the King of the Ring contest, this is something they never should have gotten away from. King of the Ring is just one of those iconic WWE things that should always be an active part of the brand and I'm glad they brought it back. From both shows the things that stick out the most to me is the Kofi getting tough with Randy Orton, Bayley getting a little rough with Charlotte and I'm so damn tired of the Roman Reigns storyline. I do like Seth and Brawn winning the tag titles, and I hope they let this have a nice long simmer before these two match up for Seth's title eventually.

Feel free to check out my brand new comic book Another Day at the Office email me for details or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help people struggling with cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.

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